Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

[engineers]

Hi, I have a customer who wants to be able to print to their Ricoh MPC 5503 or 5504 (I can't quite remember which one) from anywhere in the country.
I know the Ricoh connector app requires you to be on the work wifi for ip printing and within certain range for Bluetooth printing etc
The only thing I know of is the ricoh app for google cloud printing but that seems to cost extra. They would want it to be a free thing.
Anyone know of a way that could work? So far I have told them it's probably not going to happen
Thanks

[illude2]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

They could add it to a google cloud print via a computer that is on the local network (using the google chrome browser as if it's a legacy machine). As long as that machine with the google chrome/cloud print stays online and stays on the network it should work.

[slimslob]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

I believe that Ricoh does provide cloud printing through their own cloud services. They do however charge a monthly fee for cloud services.

[Oze]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

Google Cloud Print is the way to go.

[slimslob]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

I know the is a way to print via email. But I've never tried it. The only thing I know is that the machine need to have it's own mail-address.

Also the MFP has to have PDF direct print capability. You have to setup POP or IMAP on the MFP to check email at regular intervals. You then have to attach the document to an email as a PDF and send it.

[LNorris]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

Ricoh has Hot Spot as well, but thats extra as well.

[ridgemill]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

They could set up a free VNC server and remotely connect to a PC on the same network as the copier. Or, if they have a Windows server/Window Pro PC they can use RDP.

[rthonpm]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

They could set up a free VNC server and remotely connect to a PC on the same network as the copier. Or, if they have a Windows server/Window Pro PC they can use RDP.

I'd steer clear of advising a customer to install VNC or expose RDP to the full internet unless they have a capable IT staff. VPN is going to be the best option, but that also requires an IT staff to properly maintain and configure.

The easiest method would likely be email to print or a means of using Cloud printing from a browser.

[JayPaul]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

It seems like the google cloud printing method looks to be the easiest, I can pretty much send them a how to guide from a website I found and leave it in their hands if they want to do it.
This is probably one of those things they think is a good idea, but in reality he will only use it once or twice a year and get bored of it.
Thanks for all the suggestions

[mincopier]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

Is IPP printing out of the question? I tried setting it up on a Konicaminolta without success but not sure if I had the firewall set properly.

[Brianneoe]

Re: Printing to Ricoh when outside of office

I know there is a way to print via email. But I've never tried it. The only thing I know is that the machine need to have it's own mail-address.

If the machine has a fax option you can create a email address for the machine and have PDF's print out. Make sure its a new email address because if not it will start to print all the pdf's that are in that email address. Bottom line is that you need the fax option for this to work..but it does work.